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The '''C2''' was followed by the '''C3''' in 1991, being essentially similar to the C2 but with a faster clock and support for up to eight CPUs implemented with low-density GaAs FPGAs. Various configurations of the C3 were offered, with 50 to 240 MFLOPS per CPU. However, the C3 and the Convex business model were overtaken by changes in the computer industry. The arrival of RISC microprocessors meant that it was no longer possible to develop cost-effective high-performance computing as a standalone small low-volume company. While the C3 was delivered late, which resulted in lost sales, it was still not going to be able to compete with commodity high-performance computing in the long run.
Another speed boost used in the '''C3''' and '''C4''', which moved the hardware implementation to [[GaAs]]-based chips, following an evolution identical to that of the Cray machines, but the effort was too little, too late. Some considered the whole C4 program to be nothing more than chasing a business in decline.{{sayswho}} By this time, even though Convex was the first vendor to ship a [[GaAs]] based product, they were losing money.
In 1994, Convex introduced an entirely new design, known as the '''Exemplar'''. Unlike the C-series vector computer, the Exemplar was a parallel-computing machine that used HP [[PA-7200]] microprocessors, connected together using [[Scalable Coherent Interconnect|SCI]]. First dubbed '''MPP''', these machines were later called '''SPP''' <ref>{{cite conference|first1=R. |last1=Cataneda|first2= Xiaodong |last2=Zhang|first3= J. M., Jr. |last3=Hoover|title=A comparative evaluation of hierarchical network architecture of the HP-Convex Exemplar|conference=IEEE International Conference on Computer Design|year= 1997|url= http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=628877&tag=1|doi=10.1109/ICCD.1997.628877}}</ref> and '''Exemplar''' and sold under the '''SPP-1600''' moniker. The expectation was that a software programming model for parallel computing could draw in customers. But the type of customers Convex attracted believed in [[Fortran]] and brute force rather than sophisticated technology. The operating system also had terrible performance problems which could not easily be fixed. Eventually, Convex established a working partnership with HP's hardware and software divisions. Initially it was intended that the Exemplar would be binary-compatible with HP's [[HP-UX]] operating system but eventually it was decided to port HP-UX to the platform and sell the platform as standalone servers.
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